Technology >> CEO Interviews >> June 2, 2004
MORTEZA EJABAT is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zhone
Technologies, Inc., the first company dedicated solely to delivering the
full spectrum of next-generation wireline communications equipment.
Under his leadership, Zhone's market share and product portfolio has
grown significantly both through organic growth and the 10 acquisitions
Zhone has made in the past four years. In addition, Zhone has recently
become a publicly traded company through a reverse merger with Tellium,
Inc., in November 2003. Before founding Zhone, Mr. Ejabat was President
and CEO of Ascend Communications, Inc., which was sold to Lucent
Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion. Ascend was the leader in wide area
network (WAN) solutions for providers and users of the Public Network.
Mr. Ejabat joined Ascend in 1990 as Vice President of Operations and
assumed increasingly strategic roles within the company over his tenure
with the company. He served as President, COO and Director of Ascend
before its IPO in 1995. Under Mr. Ejabat's leadership, Ascend's annual
sales grew from $40 million to nearly $2.3 billion in just over five
years, with an increase in personnel from less than 100 to more than
3,000 full-time employees by the end of 1998. Ascend's business success
was achieved both through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, the
most notable being the $3.7 billion purchase of Cascade Communications
in 1997 and of Stratus Computer Corporation in 1998. Earlier, Mr. Ejabat
was Vice President for wide area communications products at Micom
Systems, Inc., where he had total P&L responsibility for the WAN product
line. Mr. Ejabat received his BSIE and his MS in Systems Engineering
from California State University at Northridge and he holds an MBA from
Pepperdine University. Profile
Mr. Ejabat: Zhone was founded in 1999 by the senior management team that
grew Ascend Communications from its inception to a
